Reverse 911 using TV

ABSTRACT

A reverse 911 can be sent to a TV communicating with the Internet. The TV is automatically turned on if it is off, and a viewer can acknowledge the reverse 911 using a TV remote control.

I. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to sending a reverse emergencysignal through a TV.

II. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently the Emergency Alert System (EAS) makes use of broadcasters,cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite and radioservice providers as the means to provide communications of emergencyinformation. As understood herein, the Internet may also be used todisseminate emergency alerts.

The present invention recognizes that as more TVs becomeInternet-enabled, reverse 911s can be broadcast to the IP addresses ofthe TVs. As understood herein, however, an intended recipient's TV mightbe turned off when a reverse 911 is sent. As also understood herein,without an ability to acknowledge a reverse 911, emergency serviceproviders have no way of knowing who has received the alert and who hasnot, requiring, for instance, police or firefighters to expend timechecking on residences that already are aware of the emergency conditionand have taken action accordingly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method includes receiving a reverse 911 message at a TV and if adisplay associated with the TV is not energized when the reverse 911message is received, automatically energizing the display. The methodalso includes using the display to prompt a viewer to input anacknowledgement of the message using a TV input device.

The TV can be associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) address in whichcase the message may be addressed to the IP address of the TV. Thedisplay can be a visual display and/or it can be an audio speaker thevolume of which can be established in response to the message. In someimplementations a demographic-specific message and/or location-specificmessage can be presented in the display.

In another aspect, a TV system has a TV display and a processor thatreceives an emergency alert from the Internet. The display isautomatically energized in response to the alert if not alreadyenergized so as to display a message associated with the alert.

In still another aspect, a TV system has a TV display and a processorthat receives an emergency alert from the Internet. The display iscaused to present a prompt to acknowledge the alert.

The details of the present invention, both as to its structure andoperation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and inwhich:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a non-limiting block diagram of a system in accordance withpresent principles; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of logic that may be employed by the system ofFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a system is shown, generally designated10, which includes a television 12 defining a TV chassis 14 andreceiving, through a TV tuner 16 from a cable or satellite or othersource or sources 18 audio video TV programming. The tuner 16 may becontained in the set box described below.

The TV 12 typically includes a TV processor 20 accessing a tangiblecomputer readable medium 22. The tangible computer readable medium 22may be established by, without limitation, solid state storage, opticalor hard disk storage, etc. The medium 22 may store software executableby the TV processor 20 to, e.g., control a display driver 24 that drivesa TV visual display 26 in accordance with one or more settings such asbrightness, contrast, and the like that may be stored in, e.g., themedium 22. The display 26 may be a flat panel matrix display, cathoderay tube, or other appropriate video display, and typically isassociated with one or more audio speakers 27. The medium 22 may alsocontain additional code including backend software executable by the TVprocessor 20 for various non-limiting tasks. One or more of theprocessors described herein may execute the logic below, which may bestored as computer code on one or more the computer readable mediadescribed herein.

In the non-limiting embodiment shown in FIG. 1 the TV 12 may receiveprogramming from external components such as but not limited to a videodisk player 28 such as a Blu-Ray or DVD player and a personal videorecorder (PVR) 30 that can contain audio-video streams on a hard diskdrive.

Additionally, the TV 12 can communicate via a network such as theInternet with an emergency alert server 32. While only a single server32 is shown for clarity, redundant servers or server farms can beprovided in different geographic locations and used to providelocation-specific emergency information to the intended area. Thebelow-described emergency message content may reside on the server 32,which typically is managed by state and local authorities.

To this end, the TV 12 preferably is Internet-enabled, although it is tobe understood that the server 32 may be combined with the TV programsource 18 when the source 18 is a remote entity accessible over a widearea network, in which case no modem need be provided, with the TVsending signals in accordance with the logic below through a reverselink to the source 18/server 32.

In the non-limiting embodiment shown, the server 32 is separate from thesource 18 and the TV 12 communicates with the server 32 through aset-back box (SBB) 34. In some implementations a set-top box (STB) maybe used, and the SBB/STB may itself include the tuner 16 or otherwisecommunicate with the source 18.

In any case, the SBB 34 shown in FIG. 1 may include a SBB processor 36and SBB computer readable medium 38. The SBB 34 may also include anetwork interface such as but not limited to a modem 40 to communicatewith the server 32 over the Internet. In other implementations the modem40 may be incorporated into the TV chassis 14.

It may now be appreciated that the TV 12 can be assigned an InternetProtocol (IP) address which, among other things, can be correlated tothe geographic region of the TV. Furthermore, the demographics ofviewers of the TV can be received by means of, e.g., a wireless TVremote control device 42 in response to a prompt from, e.g., the server32, so that the ages and other demographics of people in the householdof the TV 12 can be known to the server 32.

Referring now to FIG. 2, at block 44 an emergency alert, which issometimes referred to as a “reverse 911”, is received at the TV 12. Thealert may be for the geographic location associated with the IP addressof the TV 12. For example, an alert for a fire evacuation may be sent toall IP addresses indicated as being located in a particular area of acity.

The alert may also be tailored to the demographics of the viewers orpersons in the dwelling in which the TV 12 is located. Demographics suchas age, sex, etc. can be entered using the remote control 42 in responseto an initial emergency set-up screen that is displayed at initialpower-on. The demographic data can then be uploaded to the server 32 andcorrelated with the IP address of the TV. Using this data, for example,an alert subsequently might be sent only to IP addresses associated withelderly people, or to all IP addresses in a given location associatedwith children under six, and so on.

Moving to decision diamond 46, it is determined whether the display 26and/or speaker 27 are energized when the alert is received. Typically aportion of a TV (e.g., at least the processor 20) remains energized evenafter a viewer has turned the TV off to be able to receive a subsequent“on” signal from, e.g., the remote control 42. If the display 26 and/orspeaker 27 are not energized, one or both are energized at block 48 todisplay the alert, which may entail presenting a visual message onscreen as well as activating the speaker 27 to present an aural warningor message. To this end, the volume of the speaker 27 may beautomatically established to be a predetermined volume, e.g., a loudvolume. The volume may be incrementally increased until anacknowledgement is received as described below.

If desired, at block 50 the alert may be recorded on, e.g., the PVR 30for review, particularly in the event that parts of the alert werereceived prior to energizing the display. At block 52, the TV maypresent an onscreen prompt to the viewer that the alert is available forsuch playback.

Additional prompts that may be displayed include the above-describeddemographic message as well as a prompt to acknowledge the alert by,e.g., touching a particular key or keys on the remote control 42 or onthe TV chassis. Such an acknowledgement may be received at block 54 anduploaded to the server 32 so that emergency personnel will be aware ofwhich dwellings have viewed the alert and which have not, and takeaction (such as in-person visits to non-acknowledging dwellings)accordingly.

Viewers may be given the opportunity at, e.g., initial power-on toconfigure some of the actions above. For instance, the volume thespeaker 27 will be set to upon receipt of a reverse 911 can beestablished by the viewer. These variations on how to alert can beconfigured using a user interface such as “cross-media bar” menusettings. Pending configuration, a special channel automatically can betuned to view the alert video and/or messages.

In some implementations, tuning away from the special channel may beprevented until an acknowledgement is received. Once the alert isacknowledged as described above, the capability to move back and forthfrom the special channel to regular broadcast programming may bereturned.

In addition to the above, a time of day feature (or a time-out feature)can be provided that turns on all house lights or that activates a housealarm in, e.g., the night time hours until such time as anacknowledgement is received.

In non-limiting implementations a technology such as universal plug andplay (“UPnP”) can be used to take advantage of the fact that most homeshave internal IP addresses for the devices in the home. It can be usedto allow the public facing entity (e.g., the modem) to recognize aprivate facing entity (e.g., the TV).

For the above-described wake up feature, a technology such as wake onLAN (WoL) can be used to trigger the automatic power on. WoL works withall network traffic including Internet traffic where a “magic” packetcan be broadcast and the listening device (the TV or SBB in this case)can receive the packet, check it and thus, power up the television.

If desired, authentication and the verification for the above-describedalert acknowledgement can be achieved through the use of encryption andthrough the use of a digital signature and a certificate.

While the particular REVERSE 911 USING TV is herein shown and describedin detail, it is to be understood that the subject matter which isencompassed by the present invention is limited only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: at least one non-transitorycomputer memory comprising instructions executable by at least oneprocessor for: receiving an emergency alert; presenting the alert on adisplay; preventing changing from a first content source on which thealert is received to a second content source until an acknowledgement ofthe alert is received; and responsive to a determination of anacknowledgement being received, reenabling capability to change from thefirst content source to the second content source.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions are executable to automaticallyenergize the display automatically in response to the alert if notalready energized so as to display a message associated with the alert.3. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert is received and/or generatedbased at least in part on at least one of age, sex, of a personassociated with the system.
 4. The system of claim 1 wherein the alertis generated based on age of a person associated with the system.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the alert is generated based on a sex of aperson associated with the system.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions are executable for; responsive to the alert, energizing atleast one lamp in a dwelling containing the display at least until anacknowledgement of the alert is received, the lamp not being part of thedisplay.
 7. A system comprising: at least one non-transitory computermemory comprising instructions executable by at least one processor for;receiving an emergency alert; presenting on at least one display aprompt to acknowledge the alert; disabling tuning and/or navigating awayfrom a first content source to a second content source until anacknowledgement of the alert is received; and responsive to adetermination of an acknowledgement being received, reenablingcapability to tune and/or navigate away from the first content source tothe second content source.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein theinstructions are executable to automatically energize the display inresponse to the alert if not already energized so as to display amessage associated with the alert.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein thesystem is associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) address and thealert is addressed to the IP address of the system.
 10. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the display is a visual display.
 11. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the display is an audio speaker, the volume of which isestablished in response to the alert.
 12. The system of claim 7, whereinthe alert includes, a message that is demographic-specific.
 13. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the alert includes a message that islocation-specific.